America Ferrera Asks: Should I Run For Office? Should You?

Ten months after helping launch Time’s Up, which is working to combat workplace sexual harassment, assault and abuse, actress America Ferrera found herself pondering another way she could help bring about societal change.

Should she run for office?

“This whole movement is about the balance of power, and who is represented, and who has a voice, and whose stories get told, and who tells those stories,” Ferrera said. “We can’t just keep saying, ‘Let’s make the world good enough for the people who come behind us. We need to step up and take those positions of power.”

Ferrera acknowledged extraordinary leaders like Lisa Borders, the newly appointed CEO of Time’s Up who shared the stage with her today, and the women who are running for office. She said these women deserve support. Perhaps it’s time for others to step forward and assume leadership roles, she said.

“I think women in particular are afraid to say that because women who have sought power as elected officials have not been treated very well and been called some really ugly names,” Ferrera said. “So we think, if we say we want to run for office, that is going to make us seem like a power-hungry shrew or something.

“So I will say, for the first time, in front of a public audience, sure, I’ve asked myself the question of whether I should be running for office,” she said. “And I think you should be asking yourself that question, too.”